Ethan saw Alma hurrying toward him, her knock off boots making her taller today. They'd gotten into the habit of having lunch together now, Alma hadn't really sat in the cafeteria much before Ethan. When she came over, one of her legs flew over the seat to straddle it. He turned to her with a grin, tilting his head, "Hello, Alma, daring. See what I did there?"

"Are we gonna do anything together for halloween?" Alma asked, her body so close that her leg, the one under the table, was pushed up against his, "My moms taking Ainsley out so my house is completely free."

"Yeah, yeah, what do you wanna do?" he asked her with a nod, propping his head on his hand, "Disclaimer, not a fan of horror movies."

"Me neither." Alma agreed, mimicking his action with her head rested on her hand, "Hocus Pocus?"

"Hocus Pocus it is." he confirmed with a nod, a sudden look going across his face, "Oh, hang on. I sent you this last night but forgot you didn't have your phone right now."

Ethan dug into his pocket, pulling out his phone. Because of the way Alma was sitting, the back of his hand brushed against her inner thigh when he retracted his hand. Both of them noticed, neither wanted to say or do anything. Alma sat up better while Ethan avoided eye contact, clearing his throat and passing his phone to her.

"Oh my god, Jenny and Matty!" Alma gapped at his choice of costume, "You wanna do this?"

"I watched it the other night and was like 'Hey, she reminds me of Alma.' and then it all came to mind." Ethan explained as he watched her gap over the photo, "So, Matt and Jenny with Hocus Pocus?"

"What a lovely halloween." Alma spoke dramatically with a twinkle of her fingers, "Maybe I'll poison you and make it seem like some freak accident."

"Maybe i'll shoot you and make it seem like a suicide." Ethan pointed out as Alma snorted, "That was dark."

"Just a little." she explained while pinching her index finger and thumb together.

Maddy passed the pair, Alma didn't even notice until she dropped a note in between them.

"What do you want?" Alma asked as she walked into the bathroom, the note Maddy gave her insisting she did so. Alma was tempted, if she was a little smarter, to ignore it. But she went anyways, and now stood infront of the shorter girl.

"What do you want from me?" Maddy snapped at her suddenly, "Whatever it is, I'm not doing shit for you."

"I have zero clue what you're talking about." Alma rolled her eyes at her in disbelief, "You're just trying to start shit, Maddy."

"Yesterday." the Perez girl huffed as she stared at her, "The station."

Alma shrugged.

"So what do you want from me? You clearly said all that for a reason." Maddy went on, because in her mind, she had no clue why else Alma Darling, the girl she'd bullied forever, acted that way yesterday.

"Jesus Christ, I don't want anything from you." Alma spoke in disbelief her way, a glare on her face.

"So you just stood up for me for no reason?" Maddy laughed in disbelief as she stood across from her, "You're such a liar!"

"You're such a bitch, do you know that?" Alma asked her with a eye roll, "I stood up for you because what they were doing was wrong and i'm sick of them treating people like that just because they're the law. But you know what? Maybe I shouldn't have."

Alma grabbed the door before Maddy spoke up again, "I just don't know why you'd do that for me."

Alma looked back at her.

"I'm horrible to you." Maddy went on with a shake of her head, her voice softer now as she stared.

Alma huffed, "Doesn't mean everyone's as terrible as you are."

Then she left.

"So, there's gonna be a party tomorrow night." Ethan looked over at Alma as they played video games that night, "A halloween party."

"Did you get invited?" Alma asked, propping her leg up as she spoke to him.

"Well, no. But it's one of those parties where everyone goes, no one's actually invited." Ethan shrugged, pausing the game as Alma huffed and looked at him, "You wanna go?"

"To a party?" Alma rose her eyebrows in disbelief, "Last time I went to a party, BB threw her drink at me."

Ethan gave a tilt of his head, "You ever think about, just, yelling at people really loud."

Alma had to snort, "What would that do?"

"Scare them off you." he shrugged her return, index finger poking her leg, "I think you should just do that. I bet it will get people off your back."

"Or they'll think i'm crazy." she tilted her head in return.

Ethan gave a shrug, "You are crazy, my favorite thing about you."

Alma heisted before she smiled, "Let's go to that party then."

•

kylie speaks

the tension though .